Its a Tupperware Party! 29 Model-A Hot Rod.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

Put a shop vac on that radiator!

That is what I did. Worked best in blow mode so serious respirator gear for the event. Blew in the hose inlet and it shoots out the rad cap port.

On a hot rod that old, your imagination is your only limit.

So the engine in the car so far has only been a spare block, heads and manifold for proof of concept purposes. Now that the technical risk  of replacing the BBC with an LS engine have been retired, it was time to source the actual engine that will be in the car.

This inglorious pile of parts was a fully assembled 5.3 Duratech when it arrived two days ago. S'posed to have been running as bought, but  we have heard that before. Apart it came.

The good news so far is that there is no bad news. It was as clean as a 250,000 km engine should be and there was no wear ridge or rust in any of the cylinders. The lifters even came out without a fight from the topside. The only wear so far is the cam bearings are a bit rough on the upper surfaces. Worm cam bearings seem to be a common thing with LS engines, any reason why?

The other fun bit is that I got to actually practice something that I knew about but never actually tried; the exhaust manifold bolts were not going to give up without a fight and more than half broke. Fortunately my buddy Mustang has done a lot of these extractions and gave me an example using one head  turning me loose on the other. Worked well I have to say, considering  a few of them were broke off flush.

Going to get torn down to the bare block and built up with a hone and new rings and bearings. Other than a cam, it will be stock. Should be plenty for this project.

The engine that was originally intended to go in this Hot Rod just showed up. Too late for the party as the LS has taken the role of propelling this thing.  

While the BB might have had its own charm, I think the iron block LS with a cam is going to make for a much better result all around.

Hi

NOHOME said:

It is hard to believe that in today's world of 3D design software that you could actually do this bad of a job designing a suspension system. Ditto with the manufacturing.

Having briefly worked for someone that does custom suspension systems, I feel I can answer that.

Its cause they don't use them, and don't understand them.

Guy I worked for wanted to transition from steel tube frames and control arms to billet CNC and eventually maybe cast stuff.  Turned stuff into him to look over and check and he said "yup. Looks good" and sent it to the CNC.  Came back and didn't fit at all.  Asked me how I could mess up so bad and I asked him what the hell he was looking at when he ok'd the design.  Turns out he was just approving how everything looked and making sure his logo was visible.  Didn't even take measurements cause he didn't know how.  I asked him how he had planned on testing these and validating the strength of them.  "I was gonna bolt them up and go out and tear the track up! I know when something is gonna break!"

I quit shortly thereafter.  I still see his company's ads on here from time to time.

Looky what Amazon finally delivered. This Chapeau is going to look dandy on top of the new engine.

Mustang Pete has already assembled the short block and the computer and harness are in place waiting for the lump to arrive. Hopefully by next week the heads will be back from the machine shop and the engine can finish going together. The gearbox and converter are still in limbo, but could be on the same schedule if all goes well. That would be nice.Shooting for a Sept wrap-up if things stay on track.

So you wouldn't even consider trimming the fenders/running boards for those side exit headers? At least you wouldn't be swinging a leg over them like C3 rocker panel huggin tubulars.....wink

It doesn't really matter because it's fiberglass and I'm picking nits but that's not a 28/29 Model A

It's a 30/31 body.

There's a body line in the 28/29 that follows the shape of the windshield frame, down to the bottom of the body.

28/29:

30/31:

In reply to ShawnG :

I know this is a hybrid body. Built by a Canadian company called "A Glass Act" many years ago. It is a bit wider, a bit longer and the doors are a bit longer.

My task is to make it red and running. Then it goes away back to my friends house. 

To that end, Mustang has pretty much all of the engine ready to go, Missing an oil pickup for the low profile pan and then it gets buttoned up and stuck in the chassis,

^^^ is a great photo. The in focus/shiny engine backed by the blurry background really pops.

Also, Great project, skills, work ethic, etc. Nice to follow.

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :

The photo is a result of my cheap potato phone camera. It did not want to focus on much of anything when trying to take the pic.

And the zoomies out  the side  panels cascading into the running boards.......going to my room now late

In preparation for the engine install. I had to get the firewall painted. 

Done.

Sans masking. I am glad to report that the paint hardened as it was meant to. Never a given in my painting world.

If all goes according to plan, there should be an engine in front of the firewall by Thursday.

So the time has come and the engine is almost ready to go in the HotRod. But not yet ,cause the realities of LS engine swaps keep jumping out of the woodwork. While Mustang has been doing this engie build, I have been along to see how the legend of the mighty and inexpensive engine works out in reality. 

Todays lesson was adapting an old school GM powerglide to the LS engine. In theory, or Internet lore, it is dead easy and only requires a $15 adapter ring.

The ring thing works, but since no two converter snouts will be exactly the same, it might be necessary to modify the adapter. In this case, about half an hour on a belt sander managed to enshortenfy the marked bit so that the converter would mate to the flywheel.

Worth noting, the 4L60E  flywheel that is used with this spacer, does not have converter holes that match the old-school converter. Close, but you are going to need a die grinder to elongificate  the holes in the flywheel.

The above two steps are iterative in order to reach the needed fit. And a pain. Repeat as necessary.

OR watch this video and make life easy

Other observations made along the way:

LS harmonic balancers are a PITA coming off and going on.

Shallow ( Camaro or Firebird)  oil pans and the corresponding oil pickup tube add up to $$$

A performance cam that is based on a regrind  ( ie "sloppy cams") is going to leave you hunting for pushrods of the correct length if you care about valvetrain geometry. 

Torque to yield fasteners are an expensive PITA. Just saying.

fyi, nobody is expecting a stock powerglide  transmission to work behind the LS. The pictured gearbox was once behind a 9 second car and had some internal work done to keep it alive.  At least for a while.

Walked out to the shop and found out the engine had jumped into the bad all by itself. Awesome.

Make sure the rad still cleared

Plenty of room behind

Have not done a very good job of documenting this built. Suffice to say it is moving along at a steady if not blistering pace. 

Today was day 3 of starting to paint the car's panels. Due to space and logistics, it needs to be done in three stages:

1= Front fenders, grill and hood.

2-Rear fenders, rear apron and door jambs ( door edges?)

3-Main tub.

While I like the results, I will never be good at or look forward to painting a car. I am simply not good enough to get the satisfaction feedback that would make me want to pursue it to a higher level. It is also monotonous and a E36 M3load of work and time.

In reply to NOHOME :

I feel similarly about paint and bodywork.  Redoing an antique outboard is about as much of it as I can stand.

Trouble I have now is no place to store the painted panels. Don't want to do the front end work with them on the car, so for now I will set them in place, let them de-gas for a few days and then store in the basement. 

Will have a go at getting the rear  detachable panels painted today.

More red stuff. I'm never doing this again!

Really would have liked to get the tub done while I have my painting bench set up and the front of the shop cleared and cleaned for painting. But it is not quite ready to roll and I want to get the engine running before I paint the tub.

I am done. Painted my last car. 

It looks very nice.  Congrats on painting retirement.

Don't fool yourself. It's not the last. 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

I wish I got some kind of enjoyment out of painting. I do from doing the tin and bodywork, but paint is nothing but stress and expense.